Prospective election candidates, including the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, and Opposition spokespersons on education, were among those who met third-level student representatives in Dublin yesterday to discuss on a "one to one" level student concerns about third-level funding.
The Union of Students of Ireland's (USI) lobby of the Oireachtas yesterday sought to raise awareness of five key issues - reform and increases in the level of student grants, healthcare, affordable accommodation, better student representation and increased investment.
Speaking at the event, USI president Colm Hamrogue said the union would be circulating details of all those who attended - and those who did not - to its members around the country in advance of the election. He would be requesting union members to query why those public representatives who did not attend the day-long informal meeting had failed to do so.
Students would also be requesting every party to include a strong commitment to focus investment on third-level education in their election manifesto.
He said students would be expecting more than simple promises from public representatives.
"Students want specific pledges on missing medical cards, the absence of affordable student accommodation and decaying college campuses."